How I Write

Was excited for this podcast because of guests like Elif Shafak, Ocean Vuong, and RF Kuang. Conversations were insightful and I thought the host did a good job, but I was soon put off by how few women there are on here. Looking over this year’s episodes… by mid July there were as many Davids featured as women! It’s actually extremely bizarre given the field and the prevalence of outstanding female authors. It’s not engineering or finance. As I kept listening I was also alarmed by the sponsor Alpha school and that the host actually espouses them. 2 hours of school? What a wild take for a podcast that has 1h+ interviews with authors. Sounds like red-pilly libertarian mumbo jumbo. Then I’m listening to an episode with Elif Shafak and the host flippantly says he doesn’t know the difference between a metaphor and simile, as if he shouldn’t be expected to. As someone who researches and produces podcasts for topics I am not always knowledgeable about myself, this strikes me as disrespectful to not think you should have a proper grasp of the material when interviewing leaders in the field.

I am not a writer, but this podcast breaks down the creative process beautifully for any artist. Absorbing, insightful, engaging interviews.

Hi David, just one thing: there's a clicking noise throughout the episodes. Sometimes it'll be every few seconds, and sometimes every few minutes. I hear it every episode. I don't hear it on other podcasts, so I assume it's an audio-engineering problem for How I Write. It sounds somewhat like a clicker used to train dogs, but add to it the winding of a wind-up doll.

Great insightful conversations about the world of writing. David is a great interviewer. Appears he has also listened to reviews and is smartly interviewing more female writers. Keep the female writers coming!